clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Iraq forces kill 13 protesters in renewed crackdown on unrest

November 5, 2019 at 6:42 pm

Protestors attend ongoing anti-government demonstrations in Iraq’s capital Baghdad on 2 November, 2019 [Murtadha Sudani/Anadolu Agency]

Iraqi security forces shot dead at least 13 protesters in the past 24 hours, dispensing with weeks of relative restraint in favour of trying to stamp out demonstrations against political parties that control the government.

After eight people were killed during the day on Monday, security forces shot dead at least five others overnight or early on Tuesday, including one killed with live fire toward a funeral procession held for another who died hours earlier, security and medical sources told Reuters.

More than 260 Iraqis have been killed in demonstrations since the start of October against a government they see as corrupt and beholden to foreign interests, above all Iran.

READ: Protesters continue to block roads to key port, demand end to foreign meddling

Most of those deaths occurred during the first week of the demonstrations when snipers shot into crowds from Baghdad rooftops. But after the government appeared to have curbed the use of some deadly tactics, the protests swelled rapidly over the past 12 days.

The new violence flared a day after Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi appealed to protesters to suspend their movement, which he said had achieved its goals and was hurting the economy.

He has said he is willing to resign if politicians agree on a replacement and vowed a number of reforms. But protesters say that is not enough and the entire political class needs to go.

OPINION: Authoritarianism means instability, so Arab regimes need to be challenged

“After the first wave of protests, we gave the government until October 25 to enact reforms,” a 30-year-old protester, who declined to give his name out of safety concerns, said in Baghdad. “It has failed to do so, (and) all of its proposed reforms were just routine, the same old stuff.”

He said the use of deadly force against protesters had radicalised protesters who initially only wanted “constitutional and legal reforms”. Now they wanted wholesale change.

Iraqi protests – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]